USA stayer Sanagas has been purchased by BC3 Thoroughbreds to run in the 2012 Melbourne Cup.

Sanagas (5g Lomitas – Scota by Marju) is fully qualified for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups after his G1 Hollywood Turf Cup victory last month.

“We canvassed the world for the best stayers and we believe Sanagas is the best stayer in North America,” BC3 Thoroughbreds CEO Bill Vlahos said.  “We have not seen many of their horses out here for the Melbourne Cup owing to the onerous quarantine requirements combined with the overlap of the Breeders’ Cup.

No Australian trainer has been named to prepare the five-year-old who will exit quarantine in June.

Fully 17 hands plus, Sanagas won 7 of his 10 starts for previous owner Andreas Jacobs.  Prior to the Hollywood Turf Cup, he was successful in the LR John’s Call Stakes (2600m) at Saratoga and then broke the track record in the G3 Sycamore Stakes (2600m) at Keeneland.

Sanagas will have one more campaign before leaving the USA in April.  His next start is scheduled for February 11 in the G2 San Marcos Stakes (2000m) at Santa Anita.

He is a son of Lomitas and was bred during the German champion’s stint at Sheikh Mohammed’s Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket.  

Lomitas returned to Gestut Fährhof’s in 2007 but declining fertility meant he covered small books before dying in August 2010.  His best son Silvano won the Arlington Million and HKJC Queen Elizabeth II Cup and he was also fourth home behind Northerly, Sunline and Viscount in the 2001 Cox Plate.